Lack of Belief Vs. "I Don't believe in God"

I want to talk about word game that is becoming more and more common in the ongoing debate of religion. Many theists like to ask atheists, why they don't simply say I don't believe in God rather than atheists stating that they hold a lack of belief or an absence of belief. Well, the answer is quite simple. First off I want to point out this is nothing more than a word game. I see a lot of religious people would rather argue semantics then get into actual arguments.

I recently watched a video where this person argued that "lack of belief" is nonsensical because lack according to the dictionary refers to a deficiency of something, but not the absence of that. While this is true to an extent, you will also notice most dictionaries to list synonyms for words. Under lack you will find most every time the first synonym for lack to be absence. So, I think we can agree that the use of the phrase is not nonsensical. Now that we have that nonsense out of the way let's discuss why atheists choose to say "I lack belief in deities" rather than "I don't believe in God". Well, this is a product of repetitive arguments of theists. See, most theists say if you "don't believe in God' then you are making the claim "I believe God doesn't exist". This is a highly disingenuous attempt to shift the burden of proof to atheism.

The problem is Atheism does not make a claim. It does not claim that God, or any deity does not exist. The only statement we are making is that you have not provided me with sufficient evidence for the existence of any deity, let alone your specific deity. You can not prove something does not exist. No matter how many times I don't find something that is not actual proof that it does not exist. Atheists are fine with this. There is no actual agenda to prove there is no deity in universe. That is not to say that I can provide an abundance of very solid evidence to show that the dogma and structure of all the different religious systems is essentially scientifically impossible and historically it is highly inaccurate.  Because of the word games, Atheism has shifted to the wording "I lack belief in a god", rather than I don't believe in god. Firstly, religious people seem to think that disbelief and belief mean the same thing, These words are not synonyms. Stating a disbelief in god is not the same as stating I believe God doesn't exist. The other reason is, to make the statement less specific.

Christians always seem to think all the arguments are aimed at them. Many are, because they are the only ones that get upset and begin to use atheists as some sort of slur or derogatory term. But regardless, Atheism is the lack of belief in ALL deities. Not just Judeo-Christian principles and beliefs. In my world Jesus is equally as real as Allah, that is I lack any and all belief of their existence and contradictory fairy tales referred to as holy books.

So the phrase is really only meant to avoid confusion and word games. To give a clarification of the position of Atheism. It's not beating around the bush, it's making sure the position is understood, so we can move on the actual issues and arguments. I have no issue to have discussions about religion, or to defend my position and give you evidence for it. But I'm just not going to sit around and argue semantics and play word games. If you have intelligent and rational ideas or evidence to discuss, I'm game, but we aren't in elementary school anymore.